Deathwing strikeforce by elphilo

Originally produced for the Bolter & Chainsword's Dark Angels forum 'Path to Redemption' project, elphilo's force demonstrates a way to get good looking Deathwing units onto the gaming table without slaving too long over the painting.

Recognising his own painting limitations, elphilo came up with a method that suits him. First stage was basecoating them white. Then paint all the details flat without worrying about shading or highlighting. You need to be able to paint these details reasonably accurately too. The next stage simply involved painting on Army Painter Quick Shade Strong Tone. It is really easy to do and fairly straightforward but can get a bit messy! Use cheap brushes as they can take a hammering. An alternative would be to dip rather than paint them, which is probably an even faster method.

This might be considered 'cheating' to pure painting purists — but as long as they look good on the tabletop then it doesn't matter. These are models to wargame with rather than win Golden Daemons with after all — and time was a factor in their production too.

Magic "dipping sauce" [Quick Shade] is the key to my models. I'm not really a great painter, as in washes and stuff, but that gives me the look that I wanted for a gritty and easy to paint Deathwing force.elphilo

The danger with Quick Shade is that the models can become a bit murky very quickly. But, with a bit of attention to the (red and green) details and basing can really make the models pop and come to life. The advantage is the whole process is quick, painless and yields great results as you can see. And a bit of experimenting with the different tones and application of Quick Shade will lighten or darken the overall tone of the models.

I should point out that the models' arms are magnetised as elphilo plans to expand his force using more bits from the Deathwing Terminator box. In the future weapons and wargear that needs changing due to taste and/or the vagaries of Codex and rules developments will now be a lot easier to manage.